Kathmandu, April 9 -- Doctors at Bir Hospital placed a urinary catheter on Nura Prasad Neupane in January and told him that he needed to undergo prostate surgery to address urinary leakage. However, due to the long queue for surgeries, the 80-year-old resident from ward 2 of Belkotgadhi Municipality, Nuwakot, now has to wait until mid-May.

But it is unclear whether the surgery will take place as scheduled, because the government, citing the global fuel crisis, has introduced a two-day weekend-Saturday and Sunday-which could further delay scheduled surgeries at state-run hospitals.

"We were told that patients with urinary problems have to wait at least a year for surgery at Bir Hospital," said Harisharan, Nura Prasad's son. "We managed t...